17 September 2025
As part of our research themes for 2025, we at the RCMC began exploring the concept of hospitality. On the one hand, we looked inwards to think together about what it entails for an organisation like ours to be hospitable. We began to feel the impossibility of hospitality and questioned its ethics, as inviting guests often requires burdening them with visa paperwork and hostile border police upon arrival. On the other hand, we looked at the ease with which Western Europeans can travel, and how tourism from these countries can often advertise the fantasy of hospitality in locations that bear this expectation with a heavy colonial history. We then ask, what does it mean for a country to be conscripted in its hospitality?
We are very excited to welcome Joiri Minaya as a 2025 RCMC research fellow. Throughout her work, she has been exploring how tropical identity has become a product, among which is the the creation and the exploitation of the Caribbean in the tourism industry. During this session, we asked Minaya to reflect on her work concerning the ideas of hospitality, the neocolonial tourism industry, and the notions of diaspora and diaspora identity making.
Her talk will be complemented by a workshop with her and artist Raziel Perin on September 14th.
